FIG. 1 illustrates a physical SAN 10 employing one or more physical fibre channel switches 20 and a plurality of physical end devices 30. As known in the art, fibre channel switch(es) 20 are used to establish a fibre channel communication network topology (i.e., fabric) providing direct connections between physical end devices 30 (e.g., personal computers, workstations, servers and the like). Currently, a testing of the fibre channel communication network topology requires the use of a large quantity of expensive equipment, particularly a large quantity of additional physical fibre channel switches 20 and physical end devices 30 for testing purposes. One of the most prevalent problems encountered in the fabric is the ability of physical fibre channel switch(es) 20 to manage a name server database with a large number of entries. This problem is most exposed when there are constant changes to the name server database node caused by physical end devices 30 logging into and out of the fabric. Presently, the only method to populate a large name server database is to physically install a large number of physical fibre channel switches 20 and physical end devices 30 into the fabric. Thus, a technique for deceiving the fabric into thinking there are more physical end devices 30 attached to the fabric then there actually are would be beneficial in saving configuration time and reducing hardware cost.